What Happened To Work Ethics?

As I've mentioned, I work for a taxi company.  I've worked for a lot of companies over the years because I've been an independent contractor most of my adult life and contracting jobs tend to come and go.  Unfortunately, because I've worked in a number of companies, I've watched as work ethics have seriously declined over the years.

People take things from the company they work for and don't seem to think anything of it.  They steal time by doing personal business on company time.  Or, they play on the internet.  I'm not saying that I'm perfect and haven't found myself being distracted by the internet, email or simple chit chat around the office, because I have.  However, I try to catch myself and stop as quickly as I realize it.

The most serious work ethic that seems to be taking place, though, is laziness and sloppiness.  Working in the cab company, I have a couple of co-workers who are very lazy and very sloppy.  When a call taker puts in an order, if they put in wrong information or hurry through an order and make mistakes or don't clean up mistakes made on a previous order by a regular customer, it costs the drivers and the company money when the driver shows up some place and there is no one there.  Or, if the customer has told the call taker that they need a sedan because they can't get into a van or they have a wheelchair and need a van with a lift and the wrong vehicle shows up.  It's a waste of gasoline and time.  It frustrates the driver and makes them angry because the call taker has now cost them part of their income.

I have one call taker who criticizes me for taking a little extra time on calls to make sure everything is right and to make sure they give themselves enough time if they are going to the airport and suggest that they call the airport to verify that their flight is on schedule.  I see that as being professional and doing my job well.  She sees it as wasting time and forcing her to take more calls.  Of course, it doesn't matter to her that she makes a lot of mistakes and that costs the drivers and the company.  What is really scary is that she is also a dispatcher and if she has that sloppy attitude as a call taker, I wonder how many mistakes she makes as a dispatcher and how much money she costs the company and drivers.

Then, we have a supposed supervisor who actually needs supervision himself.  He's lazy and spends more time trying to get out of doing something that would have already been done in the time he's spent avoiding it.  What really gets me is that he thinks he can sing and has talked about becoming a professional.  I've often wanted to tell him that he will never be a professional singer or anything else with his attitude because becoming a professional means working hard and being disciplined.

It's like people who talk about owning their own business but don't even want to do the job they have right.  All they really want to do is to get paid for having fun or doing nothing.  When are people ever going to realize that nothing is really ever free in this life?  If you want something of value, you have to work for it.

Oh, the other thing about my sloppy co-worker that I find amazing is that she got upset the other night when the man who was dispatching got sarcastic with her about all of her mistakes.  She said he had no right to disrespect her.  That's a total joke to me.  Respect is something that is earned.  You don't get it because you exist.  And, she gets offended over a lot of little things.  She's fairly young and if she's going to get offended over every little thing, she's going to have a really tough life.

I just think it's time that people start looking at their work ethics because with the unemployment numbers rising, employers are going to have their pick of the lot and they aren't going to pick someone who is sloppy and lazy over someone who really does the job and doesn't steal from the company.

When you work for someone, you are on their time and you owe them your best as long as they are paying you to be there.